Inslee’s slice-and-dice vetoes need close scrutiny from Washington Supreme Court
More than once, Gov. Jay Inslee has said Washington is grappling with more than one crisis. He has conflated the slow-burn threat of global climate change with the fast-emerging pandemic that’s paralyzed us for much of the past year. We’d expect nothing less from a governor who closely monitors climate science and built a short-lived presidential campaign around it.
Now a central question that’s percolated for months seems to have yielded an answer.
The question: Would Inslee take unilateral action to combat the climate crisis, as he did the COVID-19 crisis, even if it means usurping the voice of Washingtonians expressed through their Legislature?
The short answer: Yes. He’s done it before, and on Monday he did it again.
When it came time to sign a pair of landmark climate bills, gradually requiring cleaner vehicle fuels and working toward net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, the third-term governor used his veto pen like a carving knife.
Inslee’s decision to slice and dice sections he didn’t like displeased fellow Democrats — the same colleagues who’ve gradually begun challenging some of his COVID measures.
House Speaker Laurie Jinkins said in a statement Monday that Inslee’s partial veto of the Clean Fuel Standard bill “reaches beyond his constitutional powers.”
Last week the Tacoma Democrat told our Editorial Board she’d grown frustrated with parts of Inslee’s COVID recovery roadmap, saying it needs to evolve. Now she’s pledging legal action against his climate intervention. She correctly pointed out what Washington courts have consistently held: that the Legislature’s job is to draft laws, the governor’s is to implement them.
But there’s more happening here than a legal debate over co-equal branches of government.
Anxious not to lose time weaning Washington off fossil fuels, Inslee vetoed language in the climate bills that tied them to future adoption of a gas tax hike and major transportation package. That has raised cries of betrayal among Republicans and centrist Democrats in the Senate who helped negotiate the $11.8-billion two-year transportation budget.
Rep. Jake Fey, a Tacoma Democrat and chair of the House Transportation Committee, told us Tuesday it’s “a confusing mess” that could take months or years to untangle.
Fortunately, the Washington Supreme Court will hear a case next month that could help curtail future messes. It stems from another time Inslee treaded on legislative powers to press his climate priorities. In 2019, he slashed several sentences sprinkled throughout the transportation budget because the Legislature had granted flexibility on public transit energy efficiency.
Inslee lost round one last June, when a Thurston County Superior Court judge ruled he’d overstepped his bounds. The timing of the decision didn’t go unnoticed.
“In a time of great uncertainty in our country and in our community during this pandemic,” Judge Carol Murphy wrote, “this case assures us that disputes regarding the constitutional roles of our three branches of government and the system of checks and balances are quite relevant today.”
Quite relevant, indeed. Now the Supreme Court can help bring much-needed clarity.
This is familiar territory for Fey and other legislative leaders who’ve brokered bipartisan transportation plans in recent years. The governor definitely made his presence felt in 2019. Not only was there the transit fuel dispute that landed in court, there also was a dust-up when Inslee redirected money from legislative projects and increased funds to replace road culverts that block fish passage.
“Who has the power of the purse strings? We take it that the Legislature does the appropriating, and there again he exceeded his authority,” Fey said Tuesday.
While that dispute didn’t go to court, Monday’s partial veto of the Clean Fuel Standard bill almost certainly will.
In the meantime, Fey said momentum for road and mobility investments may falter. That includes unfunded megaprojects like replacing the traffic-choked Interstate 5 Columbia River crossing between Vancouver and Portland.
Fey said he’ll pull together a negotiating team in the interim, like he did last year, in hopes of developing an acceptable transportation package. Inslee says he may call a special session later this year for that purpose. We’ll believe it when we see it.
To be clear, there were big achievements worthy of attention this week, from the historic climate and plastic pollution measures Inslee signed into law Monday in King County to the hard-fought police reform package he signed Tuesday in Tacoma.
But the uncertainty he set off with his partial vetoes doesn’t inspire celebration.
Perhaps a Supreme Court decision upholding the balance of power in our state will.
News Tribune editorials reflect the views of our Editorial Board and are written by opinion editor Matt Misterek. Other board members are: Stephanie Pedersen, News Tribune president and editor; Matt Driscoll, local columnist; and Jim Walton, community representative. The Editorial Board operates independently from the newsroom and does not influence the work of news reporting and editing staffs. For questions about the board or our editorials, email matt.misterek@thenewstribune.com